Land roller implements are known to be used in agriculture for levelling land, pushing rocks down into the soil, breaking up soil mounds and clods, or packing seed for example. A typical land roller includes a plurality of frame sections, each supporting at least one roller thereon. The roller may be a steel drum, a series of packer wheels or any other rolling packing element.
In some instances, it is known to provide a land roller implement in which the drum body of each roller is provided with a plurality of radially protruding chopping blades intended for breaking, crushing, and/or chopping the plant residue or stubble remaining in a farm field following the crop harvest. Examples of stubble choppers are described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,533,356 by Cady and U.S. Pat. No. 6,539,697 by Burk. In each instance, the blades are not suitably arranged for quick and ready replacement on the peripheral surface of the drum body in the event of damage, or for sharpening for example.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,895 by Hobbs discloses another example of a land roller implement having roller comprising a drum body supporting radially protruding chopping blades thereon, in which the chopping blades are readily releasable from the drum body by being bolted to respective mounting flanges protruding radially from the peripheral surface of the drum body. As shown in FIG. 2 of Hobbs, each blade 22 is supported on a mounting flange. In order to provide proper support to the blades to prevent shearing of the bolts as the blades impact the ground during rolling motion, the blades must be butted up against the outer peripheral surface of the drum. This does not allow for the leading face of the mounting flange to be welded to the drum surface as the weld bead would interfere with abutment of the blade with the peripheral drum surface as shown in attached FIGS. 2 and 3 of the current specification. Elimination of a weld along the front face as in attached FIG. 2 would cause the mounting plates to readily fold back against the drum as the roller is displaced along the ground, thus necessitating the use of rear braces supporting each mounting flange. Without braces, the leading face of the mounting flanges must be welded to the drum surface, however, the weld bead would interfere with abutment of the blade against the outer surface of the drum as shown in attached FIG. 3 of the current specification such that the bolts are not isolated from shear forces and tend to break as the blades impact the ground in this instance.